Al Franken will resign his seat in the US Senate amid sexual harassment allegations

Senator Al Franken, a Democrat from Minnesota, announced Thursday (Friday AEDT) that he would resign from the Senate after his support among Democrats crumbled, becoming the highest-profile casualty in the growing list of lawmakers felled by charges of sexual harassment or indiscretions.

Franken said he would resign in coming weeks.

Nearly all of the Senate's Democratic women - and most Democratic men, including the Senate's top two Democrats - called for Franken to resign after a sixth woman came forward to charge that he had made an improper advance on her.

"Enough is enough," declared Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York.

The accusations against Franken include an episode of forcible kissing on a USO tour before he was elected and several allegations that he groped women as he posed with them for photographs.

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Over the past three weeks, Franken has repeatedly apologised for his behaviour, although he has also challenged some of the accusations of impropriety lodged against him. Until Wednesday, he had said he would remain in his job and work with a Senate Ethics Committee investigation of his case.

But his Democratic colleagues in the Senate made clear on Wednesday that his apologies and admissions were not enough.